Star Wars Rumor is News to Moffat, Confirms Involvement in Doctor Who Through Season 9

Steven Moffat, Show Runner and Head Writer of the long-running BBC series Doctor Who, has denied rumors that he’s writing the next Star Wars film but confirms that he will be staying on Doctor Who through season nine.

Steven Moffat, the creative brain behind Doctor Who for the past few years, is currently overseeing the filming of the final few episodes of season eight of the perpetually popular BBC series (which celebrated its 50th anniversary last year.) For a while, it looked like Moffat might be deserting the TARDIS for the Star Wars Universe. According to Jedi News yesterday, Moffat had been contacted about writing one of the planned future Star Wars films for Disney. After all, Moffat worked with Star Wars 7 producer Kathleen Kennedy on Tintin: the Secret of the Unicorn. Jedi News believed that she had brought him in on the project. However, that doesn’t seem to be the case. Moffat’s wife Sue Vertue took to Twitter today to deny the rumor.

Just in case you've seen rumours that #stevenmoffat is doing Star Wars - that's news to him!

However, while that may be disappointing for fans of Moffat, they do have something to celebrate. Moffat has officially confirmed in his regular column in ‘Doctor Who Monthly’ that he will be staying on Doctor Who through the ninth season of the show. Moffat writes, “Sitting here, right now, just before the finale shooting block, I’ve figured out the cliffhanger to the penultimate episode of the next series.” He claims that next year’s cliffhanger is “a whopper”. He adds, “Oh, I don’t think you’ll see this coming!”

Moffat also talks about the other program he oversees. Moffat is the executive Producer of Sherlock, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. The shooting and airing schedule of Sherlock is sporadic and fans lament the long gaps in between seasons. Furthermore, fans are frustrated by the three episode-per-shooting block limit. However, Moffat does not share their dismay. He is happy with the long breaks and fewer episodes because, in his view, they keep the show alive.

Talking to the Guardian at the Cannes Lions advertising festival, he says, “Had we done the conventional form of a TV series which is to do runs of six or twelve, it would be over by now without doubt, it would be finished, because Benedict and Martin would never again commit that amount of time that regularly to a TV show. They just wouldn’t; why would they? But given the strange form of Sherlock, which is every two-and-a-half years we get together and we make three, means that it can go on for a very long time.”